


The Lady or the Tiger

by TeaRoses



Category: Pet Shop of Horrors
Genre: Bloodplay, Dark, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-11
Updated: 2013-01-11
Packaged: 2017-11-25 02:05:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/633949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaRoses/pseuds/TeaRoses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Have you ever heard the story of the lady or the tiger, Detective?" he asked.  Darkfic written originally for sickficfest on LiveJournal.  The prompt was:  Sometimes, Leon looks like just another human to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lady or the Tiger

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to chiave_trust for beta help. Any mistakes are my own.

Leon came into Count D's shop with a bandage on his hand and with a small smile on his face. He wasn't certain what he was hoping to catch D doing today, but he remained ever suspicious. As for D himself, he always continued to gently deny wrongdoing with his usual laugh.

Today though, he looked different. Still delicate, still in a flowing feminine gown, but not simpering or smiling at all.

"Have you brought me anything, Detective?" he asked in a musical voice, though his face remained serious.

"No, I haven't," Leon replied roughly, throwing himself onto the couch without asking if it was all right to sit down. D backed away slightly with an odd expression on his face. Leon was tempted to name it as disgust, but D was never disgusted with him, was he? On the contrary, he was always fawning all over him in that cloying way of his.

Today though, the Count's eyes were impossible to read. "What happened to your hand, Detective? Did someone shoot you?"

Just a blunt question, no "I hope nothing bad has happened to you, my dear detective!"

Leon glanced at the bandage. "Nothing that exciting. I was hurt in a kitchen accident, trying to slice some meat."

"Well, that was rather foolish of you, wasn't it?" But D's hands flew to the bandage and he began to unwrap it.

"What are you doing?" asked Leon. "Are you a doctor all of a sudden?" But he didn't move, just watched as D's long slim fingers pulled at the clumsily wrapped cloth.

"Have you ever heard the story of the lady or the tiger, Detective?" he asked.

"The lady and the tiger?" asked Leon, settling back into the cushions of the couch and leaving his hand in D's care.

"No, the lady or the tiger," D replied. "It's a rather famous story." His eyes were on Leon's hand as he continued to speak. "A man lived in a barabarous country, a country of humans, and he fell in love with a princess who was beautiful but like all of them had her cruel side. And they were caught together, and he was sentenced to the country's worst punishment: the lady or the tiger."

"How did that work?" asked Leon, picturing the county jail as D pulled on the cloth of his bandage so hard that it hurt. He tried to concentrate on anything else: the sound of his own breathing, the smell of incense somewhere in the shop. 

"The man had to choose between two doors. Behind one was a beautiful lady who he would be able to marry in happiness."

"What the hell kind of punishment is that?" Leon felt tired, and nearly closed his eyes.

D was down to a few bloodstained loops of cloth now, as he continued to unwrap the dressing. "Well, you see, behind the other door was a tiger, who would immediately kill the prisoner. And the man had no idea which door was which."

Leon's wound was revealed, and the Count held his hand in a tight grip when he tried to pull it away.

"But the princess found out which door was which. When the man went to choose, he looked at her, and she moved her hand slightly to the right. Her lover opened that door. But the question is, since she was both beautiful and a bit cruel, to where did she point him? To another woman to be married to her, where the princess would have to jealously watch them? Or... to the tiger?"

"I don't know," said Leon, his mind slightly confused. "I couldn't tell you."

"Exactly." 

Then his hand was liften to D'd mouth and he felt the Count's tongue on the wound, licking. "What the hell are you..." he began, but trailed off, too sleepy to object further. The tongue probed as he finally closed his eyes.

When he woke up, he was no longer in the shop. He was in a forest, with dead leaves beneath him and a darkened moon overhead. His clothes were gone, and he stood naked. "It's a dream," he said out loud to himself, but his body felt real enough, solid and chilled by the cold air. He could even smell his surroundings: the sap of trees and a musky scent of living animals.

When he turned toward the nearest tree, a large mottled snake dipped its head and flicked its tongue at him. He cried out and backed away.

 _Where the hell am I? Did D do this?_ A colorful bird with a wicked beak stared down from another tree. And then he heard a growl. Heading toward him on the forest floor with a huge black cat with green eyes. A panther? He had no idea, he was a city boy, and all he could think of to do now was run.

And he did run, his bare feet hurting as he stepped on the twigs covering the ground. Sometimes he thought he could still hear the panther behind him. His legs tensed and his chest ached as he pushed himself to go faster.

Suddenly he realized that the trees were thinning out and there was a building in front of him. It was built of white stone and looked to be ancient, and set in it were two doors, each the size of a man.

As he ran toward it he couldn't help remembering the story. Was this some plot of D's? Was he going to show up in a minute and point him toward a door with his feral little grin? Leon looked around but saw no one but the panther, running toward him. Desperately, he pushed through the right-hand door. 

Would it be a lady, or a tiger?

Once he was inside the tiled room, he saw it -- gold and black -- a tiger bigger than any he had seen in a zoo. As he ran for the door it jumped on his naked back and knocked him over, clawing at his neck.

As he felt the tiger's breath through his pain and a rough tongue licked at his fresh blood, Leon realized two things. D himself was the tiger.

And death had lain behind both doors.


End file.
